Neighbors of former Manteca City Council member Jay Smart once joked they could actually read the newspaper at their kitchen table at night from the glow of 2,000 plus lights he put on the roof of his former Higton Street home each Christmas.

Suffering from dementia and spending most of his days in a wheel chair at a convalescent home, Donald Davis, 67, of Manteca, decided to buy a car while dressed only in his pajamas and slippers, police said, and ended up dying in a hospital hours later.

It may be furlough Friday for many government offices. Their loss. But for many employees in private businesses who don't have the mandatory day off to save the budget, today is come-to-work-as-scary-or-nice-as-you-dare-to-be.

Future Manteca residents in the Austin Road Business Park calling 9-1-1 for a medical emergency might just see a Manteca Fire Department engine and a Ripon Consolidated Fire District ambulance pull up in front of their home.

It's not supposed to happen - according to the cable TV financial talking heads - but Florsheim Homes has already sold eight homes in the fifth phase of the Valley Blossom neighborhood without any buyer even inspecting a model.